RAW Feb 2nd Review
• Great idea to make Roman put his Rumble spot up for grabs in February (hopefully they don’t do this reguarly to make the Rumble mean much less) as his hand was forced; Bryan in the match gets some heat off Roman and gets Roman some sympy.
• Curtis Axel doing the mania point was amazing. The whiny promo wasn’t, but thanks for giving us this moment! Ambrose hoofs him out & starts talking about the IC belt, jaysus he’s setting his sights quite low but happy he’ll be on PPV with Barrett.
• Ascension vs Angel dust: Everyone has their face painted, and highly gimmicked – great! Goldust still moving and bumping like a boss. Ascension win in a short angle of a match; Stardust hisses and we have my least favourite angle, tag team dissension! Calling him Cody was actually a little shocking, good stuff.
• Blah Ryback & Harper.
• Cena cuts an in-ring promo and someone drew our Macho pic in the crowd! WOOT!
• Jimmy Uso vs Cesaro. Cole gets over some double date storyline that wasn’t on TV, why isn’t it on TV? Wouldn’t kill any of these guys to show off more character! Difficult to be heel when you’re talented, you get some cheers regardless. Maybe it’s white meat babyfaces and cool heel babyfaces.
• MIZDOW dissension! After Mizdow signs an autograph for a fan (a stagehand – they couldn’t get a fan or someone’s kid to do this segment?) Miz reads him the riot act and makes him his PA, no longer his stunt double; as Mizdow is itching to do it. Next chapter in the breakup, I don’t know where these two go after they split, their act is still great. Sin Cara wins with a banana peel, I wish he stuck Cara’s original the blue/yellow attire.
• Dear God, Cena’s blue merch is HIDEOUS. It’s blinding. He and the Vintner have a heart to heart, go away. Rowan gets destroyed by Rusev, great stuff. Also having the US title up for grabs against Cena kinda guarantees a win for Rusev, see you for a stipulation match at Mania!
• Bray beat Ziggler, glad Bray’s getting more focus but he’s far away from the level to wrestling Taker. His promos were better this week too!
• The Bellas commentate over Paige’s match. Nikki looks WHOPPER in her brown dress. Great job Cena! They spraypaint Paige’s tummy black and of course it gets nWo chants. I suppose they don’t want to use bronzer.
• Bryan vs Seth. This is the PPV match I wanted! They still have a stormer on TV. I’m thinking they should add the stip “loser has to wrestle big show” to make Bryan and Seth’s match even more urgent. The two deservingly get this is awesome chants and Bryan wins via Roman’s interference. (Roman again looks strong only doing his special moves!). I imagine this interference will be the in Seth needs to get the Fastlane match to be a three-way.
• Something I appreciate, they spend time in the ring with Bryan celebrating. It’s a small but effective thing.
Apart from the main event, it was a can-miss RAW. I’m sure Bryan & Rollins will get a PPV match one of these days.
Triple H on the Steve Austin Show
• Triple H came off quite well, I’m shocked we got such a candid interview. A couple of things Austin should’ve called him on, but on the whole I was impressed, they talked about all the important stuff. They absolutely smashed kayfabe! Stone Cold came across as basically the viewpoint of smart wrestling fans but non-confrontational, so he’d ask great questions with no follow up.
• As with every Aitch peace we get MSG Kliq reunion/getting buried for a year 6 minutes in, and mentions jobbing to Warrior at 2. No mention of losing to Henry O Godwinn in a pig pen match or letting Shelton get the surprise win, so…good?
• Austin (who fake-tanned his head) talks about weak finish of the rumble; Aitch agrees, whenever something bad is brought up about the current product he kinda throws Vince under the bus, saying it’s his vision and he’s got a great track record (well, prior to 2005 anyway)
• Aitch mentions the Attitude Era had a tight demographic; now WWE reaches every demographic. I wish Austin picked him up on this. Considering viewing figures are half of what they were in AE, eh, how is that a good thing? Also trying to reach every demographic inspires none, which is partly why the Network is 400,000 subscribers off breaking even.
• The conversation starts to circle about Reigns and H mentions how they listen to the fans, how Roman gets booed in heel towns and that’s that.
• H admits he wasn’t ready to win KOTR in 96, but was more ready in 97. So…apply that to Roman reigns and his ONE SINGLES PPV MATCH! We’re not talking about a heel midcarder winning a tournament either, we’re talking MAIN EVENT WRESTLEMANIA BABYFACE! And Roman isn’t even near H’s level in 96! But as Bill DeMott said in the Shield docu, Roman overcame not knowing.
• He admits coming to terms with having an asterix next to his accomplishments thanks to marrying Steph, something that is a real shame – he would’ve been a multi-time world champion thanks to his talent and dedication, but aul bicycle shorts had to use his clout to KILL RAW and many different talents throughout the 2000s.
• Sadly H says WWE believe there’s only one way to have a wrestling match; out fans like our play book (ie WWE’s style of wrestling). Austin lets that one go. Ever wonder why 3 hour RAWs are quite boring? Besides the obvious reason, it’s because everyone wrestles the same way. They couldn’t afford to ‘break’ wrestlers in the Attitude Era, which is a reason why it was so great, they had to take wrestlers as is (Radicalz, Jericho etc). He justifies it by saying it’s the #1 company in the world. That’s true but it’s maybe 4th most profitable with the massive network losses.
• Hilariously Austin says he loved that NXT didn’t start with a promo (as RAW did tonight!) He comes across as very in-tune with hardcore fans (knowing that’s who’s watching this interview, and says look at NXT; that’s for hardcores and more his style) and puts over the talent & it as a catch-all developmental system. It’s worth noting that NXT doesn’t do electric numbers and it’s intimite atmos is perfect for the show, and some things wouldn’t work on RAW, although RAW could take a lot of pointers from NXT. Where’s the midgets, Goddammit!
• He asks if Chyna should be in the HOF, which seemed to actually blindside Aitch. He diplomatically says he character, absolutely, but indirectly mentions her depressing porn career as the reason she’s not (‘what if an 8 year old googles her’) which is more than enough reason. I don’t think she should be in the HOF (her over-ness is a testament to WWF’s incredible booking and star-making ability – Terrible God-awful promos, terrible and un-coordinated, can’t wrestle, but great look = over massively) but that said, the hypocrisy is ridiculous, considering CONVICTED RAPIST Mike Tyson is in there, Jimmy Murderer Snuka and sure, Austin and his multiple domestic abuse charges. And also that X-Pac (who starred in the porn video with Chyna!) has signed a contract with WWE and appeared a few weeks ago on TV, and was on stage for Scott Hall’s HOF induction last year! Chyna did tweet a response saying she understands why not but would accept being inducted by herself or as part of DX.
• Wrapping up, they do word association: He’d love to wrestle Buddy Rogers (and tweeted look him up on the Network – he’s not there!) and his excuses for Punk was he was difficult to communicate and he doesn’t love the business. He breezed past the Summer of Punk (blaming Nash & McMahon) and of course firing Punk on his wedding day didn’t come up!
• Lastly, if he could change on thing about RAW, have it as 2 hours rather than 3. Good man, Aitch! He says because it’s so much harder to write and shoot a 3 hour show (as it is to watch it!).
Overall just catch the main event of RAW and the Aitch interview, it was surprisingly much more candid and engaging than I expected, obliterated kayfabe, great stuff! Next up, Stephanie?
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